Everyone loves a good restoration story, and here’s one: On Tuesday, the Dulwich Picture Gallery unveiled a 17th century painting of Saint Cecilia, which as you can see from the photograph below was in pretty sad shape.
The painter is unknown, although when the painting was purchased in 1790 by Noel Joseph Desenfans from the well-known French print-maker and dealer, Jean-Baptise Pierre Le Brun, it was thought to be by Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci. Desenfans hung it in pride of place at his home in London, which he shared with fellow art dealer and co-founder of Dulwich Picture Gallery, Sir Francis Bourgeois.
That’s when the trouble began. According to a press release,
Saint Cecilia hung in the lofty surroundings of the ‘Skylight Room’ amongst a cluster of masterpieces by other members of the Bolognese school. These included Domenichino (The Adoration of the Shepherds, now at the Scottish National Gallery and due for loan as December’s ‘Masterpiece a Month’ at Dulwich Picture Gallery) and Reni (The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, on display at Dulwich Picture Gallery). Significantly…it hung directly alongside a version of the celebrated Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse by Sir Joshua Reynolds (also now at Dulwich Picture Gallery). It is possible that Bourgeois and Desenfans paired the works according to their compatible themes – with Mrs Siddons being the most famous actress of the late eighteenth century and Saint Cecilia the patron saint of music – but it is also likely that this pairing was intended as a homage to Reynolds, placing his work amongst some of the best examples of the Bolognese school of painting he so admired. Either way, in order to make this a symmetrical pairing and the works equal in size, Bourgeois added wide strips around the Saint Cecilia canvas to enlarge it to the size of Mrs. Siddons.
Those additions eventually began to disintegrate and come away from the original canvas. In 1842, the well-known art critic Mrs. Jameson wrote that she had “seldom seen a picture so shamefully maltreated – so patched and repainted…[Sir Francis Bourgeois’s] hand is clearly distinguishable.” Later that century, Saint Cecilia was removed from display at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and has not been on display since.
Since 2009, with the help of the Pilgrim Trust, the painting has been restored to the glorious condition shown here. It’s back on display, although attributed to circle of Annibale Carracci — perhaps until more scholarship reveals the true author.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of The Dulwich Picture Gallery